As for Sacks’ theory of mourning, it is harder in Russian to make a case for
an oedipal struggle between the (male) mourner and a (male) personified death
over a (female) object of mourning. While in Germanic languages “death” is
gendered as male (e.g., the Erl König, Father Time with his sickle), in Rus-
siansmert’is a female-gendered noun. See also Karl Guthke, The Gender of
Death: A Cultural History in Art and Literature(Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1999 ). It is true, however, that the objects of mourning that appear
most often in Russian elegies are female-gendered nouns: liubov’, nadezhda,
mechta, iunost’.
43 .The ability to bear a child, at least, was not an unmixed blessing for
women, as they could not control pregnancy, which often resulted in death for
mother and/or child. Lina Bernstein quotes the unpublished letters of A. P.
Elagina (1789–1877), who repeatedly expresses her fear of death in childbirth
and also the shame she feels because of her adult son’s contemptuous attitude
toward her frequent pregnancies (“Private and Public Personas: Negotiating the
Mommy Track in the Age of Nicholas I,” paper presented at the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Convention, Seattle, Nov. 1997 ).
See also Lina Bernstein, “Women on the Verge of a New Language: Russian Sa-
lon Hostesses in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century,” in Russia, Women, Cul-
ture,ed. Helena Goscilo and Beth Holmgren (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press), 209–24.
44 .Fet titled the first section of his Osnovnoe sobranie“Elegii i dumy.”
Shakhova, “Elegiia,” in Mirianka i otshel’nitsa, 19 ; Teplova, “Elegiia,” in
Stikhotvoreniia N. Teplovoi, 52 , 73 ; Lisitsyna, “Elegiia,” in Stikhi i proza, 37 , 41. On
Maikov, see Izbrannye proizvedeniia, 789 , 798.
45 .Regarding the ability to love, the speaker in Del’vig’s “Elegiia” (“Kogda
dusha, prosilas’ ty” [Soul, when you asked], 1821–22) declares that the pain of
love has made him stop desiring it. In Del’vig’s “Razocharovanie” (Disillusion-
ment, 1824 ), the speaker, who has renounced love, foresees his death. See also
Lermontov, “Elegiia (O! Esli b dni moi tekli)” [O! If my days flowed], 1829 );
Baratynskii, “Razuverenie (Elegiia)” (Discussion, 1821 ); Iazykov, “Elegiia (Svo-
boden ia)” [I am free], 1824 ).
An example of graphically described sexual pleasure can be found in
Iazykov, “Elegiia (Skazhi: Kogda)” (Tell me: When, 1823–25). Both Baratynskii’s
“Elegiia Podrazhanie Lafaru (Dremala roshcha nad potokom)” (Elegy in imita-
tion of [Charles] La Fave [The grove slumbered over the stream], 1820 ) and
Iazykov’s “Proshchai, krasavitsa moia”(Farewell, my beauty, 1825 ) mention the
consolation of future lovers.
46 .Pushkin and Del’vig, “Elegiia na smert’ Anny L’vovny” (Elegy on the
death of Anna L’vovna, 1825 ); Del’vig, “Na smert’ kuchera Agafona” (On the
death of the coachman Agafon, 1814–17) and “Na smert’ sobachki Aminki” (On
the death of the lapdog Aminka, 1814–17).
47 .Men’s funerary elegies include Baratynskii, “Na smert’ Gete” (On the
death of Goethe, 1832 ); Del’vig, “Na smert’ Derzhavina” ( 1819 ); Fet, “Na smert’
A. V. Druzhinina” ( 1864 ), “Pamiati V. I. Botkina” ( 1869 ), “Pamiati N. Ia.
Danilevskogo” ( 1886 ); Tiutchev, “ 29 -oe ianvaria 1837 ” (January 29 , 1837 , 1837 ),
“Na dreve chelovechestva vysokom” (On the high tree of mankind, 1832 [on
248 Notes to Pages 76–77